The Sunday night “Vesti nedeli” (News of the Week) program, hosted by Dmitry Kiselyov on Rossiya-1 state television, is one of the most widely watched programs on Russian TV. On March 15, Kiselyov’s lead “teaser” was the following: “There is already a discussion in America about the possibility of a nuclear strike. Insanity!”
The show included a segment titled “Nuclear Strike.” Kiselyov himself warned that “the battle [in the Middle East] is so intense, and America and Israel so badly need a convincing result in the form of a defeated Iran, that it appears it cannot be excluded that at a certain moment the aggressors could feel tempted, enticed, to use a nuclear weapon against Iran. For the USA, it wouldn’t be the first time. [Here, footage from the August 1945 nuclear bombings was shown.] So they have experience. What’s more, such plans are already ripening.” As documentation, Kiselyov showed a clip from a recent Tucker Carlson show on how Trump had spoken in front of cameras about the possibility of using a nuclear weapon.
